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Out and Back Review

Out and Back by Hillary Allen: 9781944515959 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Hillary Allen’s story of survival against all odds.

Hillary Allen is for sure someone I’d love to encounter in my imaginary (trail running) shelter I have mentioned in the introduction of this website. Smart, brave and dynamic (what I mean with dynamic isn’t the obvious fact that she’s doing a lot of sports and is an active person, but that she takes action to make things change, or to make things happen), with a lot of stories to tell and lessons to teach. Even though I don’t know her personally, what I see through social media is a person who conveys happiness and a positive mindset. Through her book I also discovered an extremely strong competitive attitude which most of us could only dream of having.

I would like to start talking about this book by saying “WE”, as trailrunners, but I think the gap between recreational athletes like me and professional athletes like Hillary is so big that I do not even consider it the same sport. But I still think WE have a lot in common and probably the biggest weakness that stands out in most of us is… Patience…

I’m not sure if this weakness is caused by running, or if it is something that leads us to running. We tend to want everything and want it immediately. We’re used to savor the most beautiful landscapes in the world, in a much shorter time than everyone else, and we always want more.

In her book, Hillary explains perfectly how she is forced, because of one of the scariest falls & injury in running history, to face that weakness. And she transforms that weakness into one of her biggest strengths. By learning to slow down, proceeding step by step, bit by bit. The path she takes isn’t a recovery to become the person she was before the accident, but a transformation into someone new, someone better, and stronger.

Since I don’t want to unveil too much of this book, I only want to say that what you’ll learn from Hillary’s story is that life is a strange race. You’ll get trough highs, and through lows, but you’ll learn to accept those lows, and learn a lesson from each one of those darkest moments. You’ll learn to cope with the lows that are yet to come, you’ll fight your fears, and you’ll probably find an easier and faster way out with time and this process will take your highs to a whole new level.

I wish you all a good reading of this book. Read it as a story, use it as a guide, share it as a gift.

Running stories

Why we run, and why on trails.

Post author By Trail Running Shelter
Post date January 23, 2021
No Comments on Why we run, and why on trails.

How can something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other over and over again makes us feel so damn happy? And why on earth would someone wake up purposely at dawn during weekends to do this basic exercise?

Because our bodies and mind needs it. They’ve been designed for it. You surely won’t feel this compelling need on your very first run. You’ll rather struggle after 5 min, and get irritated thinking “what’s so funny about running?” But once you’ll try to put goals into your runs the whole thing will change.

Start setting a distance goal. For example 5k, 8k, or even 10k. I’m sure every healthy person is able to walk/run a 10k distance from scratch. It would mean walking for 2 hours… not a big deal huh? Not worrying about pace, just going for it whatever time it takes. And once you’ve accomplished this, you’ll feel true and pure satisfaction for what you just did.

Then go for another one. You’ll most probably start to struggle after 2 or 3 km thinking of quitting and going home contenting yourself with what you just did. But if you just try to take it further and overcome the 5th km, you’ll see how the other half comes by itself.

Then you push yourself further maybe through longer distances, and at some point the magic will kick in. Endorphins will increase and your body as your mind will start to feel better. You’ll start to look around, seeing and appreciating things that maybe you never noticed before even if you’ve went through them thousands of times.

All of this magic gets boosted even more while running in nature. Going with the trail’s flow. Hopping the downhills and walking the climbs. But most of all breathing, and consciously feeling what’s surrounding you. Noticing if it is hot or cold, dry or wet, windy or calm. Just absorb that feeling on your skin and the smell in the air, while you keep on putting one foot in front of the other.

This happens to us because we’re meant to do it. Human bodies are perfectly engineered to walk & run all sorts of distances, not to stay all day on the couch and use a scooter to go to the grocery store 200 meters away from home. All you need to do is “reactivate” that innate power we all have.

This is why we run, why we’re so addicted to such a simple motion. And we do this even more willingly into the nature because we’re part of it. While we run on trails we’re just reconnecting to what we fundamentally are: A piece of it.